''Requiem pour un poisson'' (Requiem for a Fish) is a 2005 novel by French author

Christine Adamo Christine Adamo (born 1965) is a French writer who comes from the world of the sciences. Specialized in environmental information, she writes thrillers which cross science, history and suspense. Novels * '' Requiem pour un poisson'' (Requiem f ...

Plot

The

coelacanth The coelacanths ( ) are fish belonging to the order Actinistia that includes two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'': the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (''Latimeria chalumnae''), primarily found near the Comoro Islands off the east coast ...

is an ancient

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of fish that might have been the missing link between land and sea. Everybody thought that it had disappeared long before the

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. Yet, one day in 1938, a

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

fisherman catches a specimen in his nets. But is the fish really the famous coelacanth? The world of science gets passionate and jealous around the beast. Who will be the first to trace the origins of mankind? Stealing, cheating, lying... murdering? And why is Marie, this young pregnant Parisian, suddenly caught up in this story? Between

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

Comoro Islands The Comoro Islands or Comoros ( Shikomori ''Komori''; ar, جزر القمر , ''Juzur al-qamar''; french: Les Comores) form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and northw ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, the world of

ichthyology Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octob ...

turns into a gripping thriller.

Release details

*2005, France, Liana Levi, , Pub date 7 January 2005 *2006, France, Folio policier ( Gallimard), , Pub date 4 April 2006 *2006, Netherlands ("Requiem vor een vis"), De Geus, , Pub date 2006 *2007, Italy ("Requiem per il Celacanto"), Effemme Edizioni, , Pub date 2007 2005 French novels French crime novels {{2000s-crime-novel-stub Crime novels